When it comes to giving your backyard that get-away-from-it-all, spa-like feel, few things can compete with a great pool design and installation project. And with features you’d find in your favorite resort trending for 2025, like integrated spas, Baja shelves and fire elements, it’s easy to see why you may want to make staycation plans in lieu of vacation plans this summer. Here’s what’s hot:
The Straight and Narrow
Plunge pools, with their straight, slender design, are perfect for smaller spaces and come in a variety of sizes and different features. Cold plunge pools have become very popular, touting health benefits that include reduced inflammation for post-exercise muscle recovery and arthritis and improvements from everything to immunity and circulation, to memory, mood, focus and sleep. They can be kept cold in the summer and heated in the winter, and can include additional wellness features like hydrotherapy jets, as well as an artificial current that lets you swim in place. According to Zillow’s 2025 trend report, an at-home cold plunge pool’s value has risen 130% since just last year.
Natural Curves
From free-form shapes to contemporary rounded corners, to completely circular designs, curves are in for 2025. Curved shapes can be easily adapted to your particular outdoor layout, as well as blend in more seamlessly with existing landscape elements, for an organic look. Conversely, sleek curved corners offer a modern look and feel that’s perfect for minimalist exterior design. Round pools are popular for smaller spaces and are safer if you have small children or pets since there are no sharp edges. They can also be easier to maintain since water circulation is better with no corners to trap and stagnate water.
If you have the space and the funds, a “lazy river” can be a high-end feature to consider. The swimming pool is constructed with curves to mimic those of a river, often wrapping around a rounded, center island, with a pool current system installed to replicate the water movement of a lazy river – perfect for floating in a tube and letting stress melt away.
Color & Texture
Tile is big for 2025 and is being used for more than just a decorative edge or waterline delineation. The shift from soft neutral colors to deeper shades in pool tiles also comes with the trend for continuous, uninterrupted tile design for added dramatic effect.
Pools are being regarded as works of art, so brilliant-colored tiles are appearing on Baha shelves, in integrated spas, as well as in lieu of traditional pool coping. Coping itself is getting a facelift with terrazzo-inspired looks and precast colored concrete.
Two design avenues for pool lining tiles include organic looking natural stone tiles and smooth, polished glass in unlimited colors and finishes. Beautiful mosaic designs are being fashioned from iridescent glass tiles that reflect light and shift hues, along with luminescent mother-of-pearl for looks that shimmer with beauty.
Blurred Lines
The trend of integrated design with its seamlessly fluid aesthetic is just as popular for pools in 2025, as it is for interior and exterior spaces. Here, opt for irregular pool shapes that mimic those of natural bodies of water. You can also consider a beach entry or zero edge design, where the pool has a long, gentle slope into the water, resembling the water line of a beach. Use natural stone coping around the pool and even in the pool lining for a truly organic pond look and feel. Including natural stone features around the pool, along with an abundance of lush plantings and water features like waterfalls and bubblers allow you to transform your pool into a peaceful oasis.
Shelf Life
Baja shelves, lagoons, tanning shelves – call it whatever you like, this luxe design feature is a popular must-have for pools this year. These shelves or lagoons are shallow areas integrated into the overall pool design, with a water depth of about 7-15 inches and large enough to allow for a few lounge chairs. They’re the perfect way to keep cool when you want to lounge outside with a book or beverage without having to stop what you’re doing to take an actual dip or swim. They’re also a great for keeping kids and pets close and cool when you’re all outside.
From Here to Infinity
Infinity edge pools are more popular than ever and are quickly becoming a top-tier, must-have luxury feature. Especially for homes with scenic, panoramic views, infinity pools allow for an immersive visual experience for enhanced enjoyment. The edgeless look is a visual illusion created by having the water look like it’s disappearing over the pool’s edge, when in fact it flows into a concealed basin just below and then gets pumped back into the pool.
Tech Makes a Splash
A common concern for people considering adding a pool to their landscape is maintenance, especially in terms of time commitment and effort. Smart technology is making these concerns obsolete with cloud-based pool monitoring that lets owners control things like chemical levels, filtering and temperature regulation from the convenience of their smartphones. Custom programming can be used to set maintenance options throughout the seasons or when away from home. Automatic safety covers are also very popular. Not only do they provide homeowners with added peace of mind, but the covers are also great for conserving heat and preventing water evaporation and chemical loss.
Spa-ahh Style
For the ultimate resort feel for your pool, an integrated spa or spillover spa is the way to go in 2025. You can easily shift back and forth from your swimming pool to your outdoor spa without ever leaving the water. Traditional integrated pool spas are often set along the pool’s corner or edge and include steps for easy access, a wide seating area, hydrotherapy jets, with water heated to around 100o for therapeutic benefits such as muscle soreness relief and relaxation.
A spillover spa can include these same elements plus connects more directly to your pool via a waterfall or water curtain, enhancing your spa’s aesthetic, both visually and with relaxing sound. The water spills from the spa into the pool, then recirculates back into the spa. Consider a spillover spa with an infinity edge treatment for a truly seamless look. Colored lighting can be added via water-safe LED panels inside the pool as well as with exterior lighting for visual excitement and drama, or to delineate the spa from the pool, as well as for additional therapeutic benefits like chroma therapy.
One with Nature
Along with having a pool that appears seamlessly integrated with nature, you can also include features that offer greater sustainability from the pool’s structure through its maintenance. Explore options using recycled materials for your pool construction. Other sustainable features to keep in mind include:
- Water recycling systems for more efficient water maintenance and reduced water evaporation
- Using solar panels to heat the water, or operate equipment such as filters
- High-efficiency filtration systems that automatically adjust water velocity and pump speed based on cleaning needs
- Pool covers that aid in resisting water evaporation (which then requires the addition of more water and chemicals) and in heat retention
- Saltwater chlorination systems that produce chlorine via the electrolysis of salt, leaving the water softer and less irritating for you to enjoy
Fire Water
For the ultimate pool wow-factor, fire bowls are hot for 2025! The combination of fire and water is hard to beat for aesthetic drama and beauty, with a bonus factor of gentle warmth and added light for evening ambience. Fire bowls are typically smaller and shallower than fire pits, with a focus on style rather than as a source of heat. They are fueled by natural gas or propane, so they are smokeless and are designed to be placed along the edge of a pool or on a platform within a pool. Pair them with waterfall features to make your pool a stunning landscape showstopper.
A Window into What’s Next
Modern architects are including pools and home designs that can incorporate pools with glass walls or windows for unparalleled luxury design. These windows and walls provide a visually immersive experience, once again, blurring the lines from one space to the next. The reflected light from the water, whether from natural sunlight or decorative lighting, is nothing less than stunning, adding a dynamic design element as water and light shift and move throughout the day and night.
Be sure to check out our past blog posts all about Pool Design & Installation projects to inspire your next backyard project!
